The present invention relates in general to hand-held devices for personal protection or defense. More particularly, the invention relates to a lightweight hand-held defense device allowing the user to repel an assailant by inflicting non-lethal wounds.
Rapes, muggings, purse snatchings and other physical assaults are a serious problem in the present society. These assaults often result in bodily harm, mental anguish and loss of property. Each known method of personal protection has certain disadvantages. Firearms and knives, for example, cannot be carried upon the person of most citizens without violation of Federal and State statutes. Even those citizens who are permitted to carry such dangerous weapons may not wish to inflict as massive or lethal an injury to another as is typical through the use of such weapons. In addition, such weapons have been shown to carry a substantial risk of injury to the owner through accidental discharge or impalement.
Commercially sold gas cannisters, contemplated for spraying into the face of an attacker, for example, have also been shown to be ineffective for their intended purpose. In reality, such cannisters are difficult to aim accurately, particularly where the victim is taken by surprise. The deterrent effect of the spray in such cannisters, even if actually administered to an assailant in a strong dose, has also been questioned. Moreover, these sprays are especially susceptible to weakening if sprayed any substantial distance through the ambient.
Knowledge of defense techniques, such as karate and judo, is also an unacceptable alternative for many persons. Some persons simply lack the physical strength necessary to employ such techniques effectively, or lack the self-discipline required to master such techniques in the first instance.
What is needed therefore is a new personal protection device which is easy to operate, effective in its intended purpose of deterring attack, and which is inexpensive to manufacture.
The invention disclosed in prior application Ser. No. 457,758 accomplishes its objects by providing a lightweight, hand-held personal protective device which deters an attacker by means of a hook member, three-pronged fishing hook for example, mounted on the end of a reciprocable rod, preferably in a break-away fashion. The hook is normally retracted in a protective housing and controllably extended from the open end of the housing. The aforesaid application requires that the user swing with the device at his or her assailant, in such manner as to hook the assailant. Such motion presents some inconveniences to the user as he or she must aim at some exposed portion of the body of the assailant in order to use the device in an effective manner, and the hook member may be caught by the assailant's clothing rather than becoming embedded in his flesh or skin.